23 Weeks

Oops, I did it again (singing the song out loud), I let the week go by without taking my 23 week belly pic. I promise to make up for it with some pics from the week.

If I had to pick my favorite time during pregnancy, I'd have to say it was this week! I actually started feeling pregnant! My belly has officially lost it's rolls and is now solid. I figured if my stomach doesn't budge when I suck in, and if it's not because I have a 6-pack, it must be a preggers belly! I am just loving how truly pregnant I'm looking!  

Along with looking pregnant, I'm also feeling pregnant; Baby J has officially started moving ALL DAY LONG! This little man is getting strong and providing me with hours of entertainment! All of his movement tends to be really low in the center of my belly or up high and to the left. I'm figuring he is either breech (hope not) and kicking the bottom of my uterus, or he is going to be a boxer and he's working on his punches! Either way, I'm just loving this feeling; it is by far the best moment of pregnancy! His kicks or punches are getting stronger and every now and then I feel them on the outside. I've reached for AJ's hand multiple times and of course Baby J stops moving. He hasn't been lucky enough to feel our son moving around, but I think it will be any day now.

In addition to feeling Baby J, I've also been feeling more side effects of pregnancy. This past weekend I officially had to take my wedding ring off. I was able to put it on in the morning and it was fitting fine most of the day, but by the end of the night my fingers were getting too swollen. Twice this weekend I thought I was going to have to either break my finger pulling that ring off, or have to go to the ER to get the ring cut off. AJ made it very clear that he'd be PO'd if my ring had to be cut off so I decided not to tempt it. I am very sad that I can't stare at my shiny, beautiful diamond ring all day, but it's just another sacrifice I'm making for this little man and it's all worth it!

In addition to all these great and new experiences, it was also my mom's and my birthday week! My mom's birthday is the day before mine and this year we decided to have a combined dinner party. What started with 15 people on the guest list turned into about 35 amazing friends and family showing up to help us celebrate! We had reservations at a BBQ restaurant in Livermore and they did such a great job dealing with this huge crowd. Our food was delicious, the drinks were fantastic (so I'm told) and the atmosphere was perfect! This was the last year I could celebrate me all month long, but instead of making it all about me, I wanted to share the experience with my mom! I'm so happy we had our party together; it was such a great night!

The only thing we could think of that would make this week perfect was finally giving Baby J a name! We are so excited to meet our son, Emerson James Jimenez.



Update on the Nursery: Before

After

 Some of the wonderful gifts I was spoiled with:

Tummy Time Mat from the Bestie

Best.Binky.Ever

First Harley outfit from G-Pa

First green shoes-perfect for the A's games!

Alcohol removed champagne!

This little piece of heaven was designed by my sister-in-law!

Here's a couple of pics from the birthday celebration:

Me and Sis

Me and my ladies!

 

Since I don't have my bump pic, here's my current view:

 

 

Only 17 more weeks! 

 

How Far Along: 23 Weeks
Weight gain: 19.2 lbs
Maternity clothes? Yes, and I got some great pieces for my birthday!
Stretch marks? None yet!
Sleep: Tossing and turning most of the night

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling Emerson move all day and spending my birthday with my mom and amazing friends.
Miss Anything? Alcohol-included champagne
Movement?: Yes, all the time now! Getting stronger each day!

Food cravings: All things sour and sweet

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nada
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Headaches
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? Off-boo
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy
Looking Forward To: A's vs Giant's and Opening Night! Go A's!

22 Weeks

Well look who finally decided to show up-My Belly! No joke, all weekend I had everyone telling me that I looked too small to be 22 weeks along and then come Monday, I was huge! This boy must have eaten his Wheaties over the weekend. Along with the sudden growth came the all day stretching pains of my ever expanding uterus. Monday and Tuesday I was uncomfortable all day. I actually read up on Braxton Hicks thinking that's what I was having, but I think it might have just been the round ligament pains. I've had a couple more people tell me I'm still looking small, which scares me because I'm sure I'll pop over night and be riddled with stretch marks. I guess it'll just be payback for all the ones I left on my mom. Sorry Mom! Like they say though, stretch marks are just a tiger earning her stripes! 

Shirt: Cafe Press

Besides my bursting belly, the other big event of the week was St. Patrick's Day weekend!! For all who know me well, green is my absolute favorite color and I LOVE beer, so of course St. Patty's Day is my favorite holiday! Unfortunately this was the first year I didn't drink a green beer :( , but I guess the little leprechaun growing inside me is all worth it. I told everyone I know that this was the first year I wouldn't have green poop the next day! Although it was a sober weekend, it was still a great one! Friday night, AJ and I went out to San Jose to visit with his family. His cousin who lives in Hawaii was down for a visit and her dad was throwing her a BBQ. It was so nice to see all of his family that I've never met or only met a few times. We had a great time catching up and I loved hearing all the crazy stories from AJ's childhood. It turned into a very late night, but oh so worth it!

Saturday we watched our little ring bearer play his first tee-ball game. CUTEST.THING.EVER! It's so adorable to see 15+ kids all on the field kicking dirt, picking flowers, or sitting in the grass. AJ tells me he was the kid picking daises in the outfield. Hopefully our son gets his baseball skills from his Mom and not so much from his Dad. ;) AJ and I both want our kids to love baseball/softball as much as we both do. Watching the game this weekend got us so excited for our little boy to start!

Saturday night the gang all got together and went out to celebrate St. Patty's Day Eve and have a last hoorah before the Bestie moves to TN. We secretly planned a trip to Old Sacramento where we bought tickets for a Murder Mystery Dinner. She had no idea until they were calling our names for the Suspects Dinner. This was a first for all of us and we absolutely loved it! The show was a comedy/mystery of who done it. We all took notes and wrote down our clues and we still didn't guess the right killer. I strongly recommend this to anyone looking for a fun night out with really yummy food! After dinner we bar hopped around and then went home when the rowdy crowd started coming out-yes, we're old! 

These girls mean the world to me!

The best group of friends a girl could ask for!

This St. Patty's Day was the first in a long time that I wasn't hungover-the one thing I don't miss at all! It was a nice, relaxing day with the hubby and some old friends. One of the friends I've known forever, who happens to be our neighbor now had a party at her house with one of the best new finds for clothing, La Pink Boutique, a boutique on wheels! With my birthday coming up, I figured I deserved a few early bday gifts, yay for me! Speaking of birthday, it's next week!!!! I can't wait! My mom and I were born just a day apart so this year we decided to throw a combined shindig with all our friends. We're going out for BBQ and then dancing all night to a live country band. So looking forward to this night! Last birthday that I get to only think of myself so I need to go all out! I'll be sure to post pics of me rocking the bump in the line dance!  

Only 18 more weeks!



How Far Along: 22 WeeksWeight gain: 19.2 lbs
Maternity clothes? Yep-still trying to find some pieces that are non-maternity that will work for me now and after the baby.
Stretch marks? NopeSleep: Getting a little more uncomfortable as my belly gets bigger

Best Moment of the Week: Spending a great weekend with my dearest friends!
Miss Anything? GREEN BEER!
Movement?: More and more each night!

Food cravings: Sour, sweet, and anything spicy!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing much
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Headaches and either Braxton Hicks or lots of stretching
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On, but getting a little nervous it's going to get stuck soon
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy
Looking Forward To: My Birthday Week!



21 weeks

We're in the teens! Only 19 more weeks! The week started off pretty normal. Nothing too exciting was planned so we had big goals to paint the nursery. AJ happened to have Thursday and Friday off so he was able to prime the nursery. Friday we ran around doing some errands and ended up purchasing what we hope to be the light for Baby J's room! I originally wanted to have a chandelier painted green, but AJ thought it would look too girly (saving this bright idea for our future daughter). My next thought was finding a green or white large drum shade, but those were extremely hard to find for a decent price. We were planning on making a trip to Ikea to see what they had to offer, but ended up falling in love with a light set we saw at Cost Plus World Market. We went there to look at their dresser knobs; I had done some research and found a cute, cheap set on their website. We have big paint plans for both our changing table and chifferobe so I thought clear knobs would be perfect. We ended up buying two clear and two soft blue knobs to test out with the furniture. Here's some pics of the light, knobs, and the primed nursery.

Look at that sexy beast!

Replacing this window! Already got a quote.

The lights are burlap and when lit are a soft grey color. Really hoping they fit in with the room and aren't too overbearing. I think they'll match our grey glider perfectly! 

While we were running errands on Friday, AJ got a text from his mom letting us know that his step-dad had been moved into the ICU and it wasn't looking very good. A little back story-roughly three (unsure of this number) years ago his step-dad was diagnosed with a type of cancer known as Multiple Myeloma; it's a cancer of his plasma cells in his bone marrow. He's had multiple battles over these last years, but has pulled through each one. He was in remission for some time before the cancer came back right around our wedding. He was actually in the hospital and was unable to make it to our wedding. He had made it back home for the holidays, but went back to the hospital in January. He was admitted to Sutter Cancer Center because he was going to undergo a bone marrow transplant. Everyone had really high hopes for this treatment and for a time he was starting to get better. There were some complications that came with the transplant, but he was a fighter and was battling through them. Thursday evening he started having trouble breathing and overnight it just got worse. They admitted him to the ICU on Friday hoping to just get his breathing under control. While in the ICU they realized he had an infection in his left lung and that his kidneys and liver weren't functioning 100%. They ended up having to sedate him to free him of all the pain. Once we got the text we hurried home, got ready, and headed out for the hospital. We ended up staying all night and sleeping on the waiting room floor. Saturday came and the situation wasn't any better. The Dr's were doing everything for him, but it was just too much for him to handle. Sunday morning, surrounded by all his family, he left this world and left all his pain. It was a very long, exhausting weekend, but it was so nice to be surrounded by so much family and friends all there to support one another. My father-in-law was a great man, son, brother, husband, father, and friend and he will be dearly missed by so many. Soon our son will be here to help fill the void of losing this wonderful person. Although he will never meet his Grandpa, we will never let him be forgotten! We love you Uncle Spencer!


Only 19 more weeks!

 

How Far Along: 21 Weeks
Weight gain: 19.2 lbs
Maternity clothes? Tried wearing some regular work pants and I was miserable, so officially ONLY maternity clothes!
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping pretty great with my prego pillow

Best Moment of the Week: Being surrounded by family and friends
Miss Anything? Really could have used a drink this weekend
Movement?: Started to feel a lot more movement this week, but still only at night. Actually felt a couple strong kicks from the outside!

Food cravings: Cereal and anything sour!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really anything
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Headaches and restless legs in the evening
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy
Looking Forward To: My favorite holiday, St. Patrick's Day!

Half Baked!

We're officially halfway there, 20 weeks preggers! I can't believe I'm halfway done with my pregnancy. The other day I actually started getting bummed out knowing that I only had a few more months of this incredible experience. I know this part is just the beginning, but I'm loving every minute of it and so sad it's almost over. 

We had our 20 week anatomy ultrasound this week, followed up by our 20 week Dr. appt. I read about this big appointment in my "What to Expect..." book and started getting very excited, yet very nervous. AJ and I were excited to get a very long glimpse of our little man, but of course we were worried about what they might find. For those of you who know nothing about this ultrasound (like me two weeks ago), it's used to determine fetal anomalies, the babies size, weight, and to measure the growth ensuring the baby is developing according to plan. We had to actually get this done at the hospital by an ultrasound tech and not our Dr. Our tech was very nice and actually told us what she was looking at because unless it was his face, arms, or legs, we were just seeing black and white fuzziness. She showed us his stomach, heart, brain, spine, kidneys, and his pieces and parts (yep, still a BOY). The tech can't tell you anything one way or the other, but I was able to pick up on some things she was typing onto the screen. When she was looking at his heart she typed in 4 CH Heart, which told me he had a 4 chamber heart, definitely a good thing! Luckily she slipped when she was looking at his brain and said it looked completely normal because I was expecting to see the shape of a brain, but instead saw the fried egg from those old "This is your brain on drugs" commercials. When she was looking at his face he opened and closed his mouth; I'm pretty sure he was saying "Hi Mom & Dad"; it was pretty amazing. He also waved at us! When she showed us a side profile he had his legs completely stretched out, arms above his head, and was in a full pike position. It didn't look comfortable, but he stayed in this position the entire time. Here's a pic of Baby J's cute, little alien face and his tiny feet.

After the ultrasound we had to wait two days before we could get the results. Our 20 week Dr. appt. had been making us nervous for a few weeks because not only were we going to get the ultrasound results, we were also going to learn the results from our genetic testing. Well, great news, Baby J is PERFECT! The genetic results were normal and everything in the ultrasound came back a-okay! During our ultrasound, AJ and I both thought the tech was questioning our due date. She asked a couple of times how the due date was determined and if an ultrasound had confirmed it yet. I told her I'd been tracking my periods so I knew the first day of my last period, plus our first ultrasound confirmed the date. We were thinking either Baby J was bigger or smaller than a 20 week fetus, but we found out our due date is EXACT. Tuesday was our 20 week date and he measured 20 weeks, 0 days. 

One of the things we learned was that I have an anterior placenta. This just means my placenta is growing on the front side of my uterus, instead of it growing in the typical area closer to my spine. I had read about this on a few websites and in my pregnancy book and it's nothing to worry about. Baby J doesn't care what side it grows on and most anterior placentas move to the posterior position before you go into labor. All the info I read had said this could be an explanation for why I don't feel Baby J that much; the anterior placenta creates a cushion between baby and belly. I know it's normal not to feel a ton of movement yet, but everyone I know that's pregnant right now started feeling their baby a lot around 18 weeks. I was getting a little worried, but knowing this makes me feel better. Hoping to feel his kicking more in the upcoming weeks.

In other news, we picked out the paint for the nursery! I already told you we are attempting to do an ombre chevron pattern on the lower half of our walls (under the chair rail). We decided on doing a very soft grey for the upper portion of the wall. We picked out one of the ombre colors to paint our changing table and AJ plans on antiquing it. We are also going to ombre the drawers of our chifferobe/dresser. We were lazy this weekend so no priming got done. Hoping to start/finish the priming this week and maybe paint this weekend. Here are our colors:

Over the weekend we went to AJ's cousin's baby shower and it made me very excited for ours! She got soooo many gifts! After I built the registries based on all the must haves, I went a little crazy adding all of our (my) wants. Our bank account is in trouble because once our shower is over I'm going to run out and buy everything we didn't get!

Last great news of the week, Cooper's eye is FINALLY healed! We took him to the eye specialist (yeah, that's right a dog eye specialist) 10 days ago and he had another procedure done to his eye. He had to wear a contact lens for 10 days to prevent friction from blinking his eye. Monday night we took him back and the scratch had finally healed! Only 2 months and $800 later, but he's well worth it! Lucky for him this all happened PRE-Baby J while we still consider him one of our babies and not just one of the dogs.

We got to see Baby J's Aunty J, who's been away at college. She came home for her birthday weekend and brought a little present for her nephew. Perfect that her college colors match the A's colors! 

Well, that's it for week 20. I still can't believe we are half way to meeting our baby boy!

Only 20 more weeks!

How Far Along: 20 Weeks-HALF WAY!
Total weight gain: 19.2 lbs - only gained 3.2 last month, need to keep it less than this for the next 8 weeks. The BIG weight gain starts around 28 weeks...YIKES!
Maternity clothes? Pretty much everything, but I can still fit into all my socks and jewelry!
Stretch marks? Nope, but getting very afraid that I'll see them anytime now.

Sleep: Finally cracked and bought a pregnancy pillow. It was $65, but oh.so.worth.it; I'm sleeping so much better!

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing Baby J and finding out he's healthy!
Miss Anything? I've been craving spicy tuna sushi rolls and I can't have them-Boo
Movement?: Still very little, but I guess it makes sense because of my anterior placenta. 

Food cravings: Grilled cheese, cereal and now tuna sandwiches 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Had a moment this week with a VERY strong aroma of peanut butter. Used to love it and now the smell makes me sick.
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Gas, heartburn (it's back), and headaches
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On-well technically it's off. I lost a stone so it's getting fixed.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and excited!
Looking Forward To: painting the nursery